1917
Word of the promotion of Col. Will Fitch reached us just after last month's notes went to Hanoyer. The good news is thus tardily placed before you. But the Hats Off department jumps to its feet regardless, in what may well be one of its last wartime doffing ceremonies, to honor Col. Will for a long period of service well rendered. Recent word direct from the Colonel brings greetings to the gang but says nothing of the promotion, nor of the prospects of getting back into a natty blue serge.
With the change in the direction of events in the past few months comes news of '17's warriors returning from battle to pick up peaceful pursuits where they were left some few years back. Capt. Gerald Shattuck USN is back at his home in Portsmouth, N. H., and up for retirement for disability, expecting to have his papers cleared along about now. Gerald gave the navy all he had for the full stretch in the Pacific since 1941, and feels that some twenty-eight years in the service is enough, especially since they asked him if he wanted to retire.
Capt. Sam White USNR wrote from Alaska, "Expect to be back to my old Seattle address the latter part of October; but for the latter part of the football season on Saturdays it will be Hanover, Princeton, etc.,—and in civilian garb.".... In early October, Lt. Col. Gil Swett wrote from Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, Alaska, and incidentally cuts us in on where he and Capt. Sam were getting together, "Probably within a week or two after you get this, I'll be back in Jersey and back in such assorted remnants of six-year-old clothing as I can find left in my wardrobe after my boy got through raiding it through these war years. Left Adak yesterday and left Sam White there, also sweating out his discharge. As things look we'll both be able to make the Yale game. Junior is still in the- air force. The air cadet program folded under him and he's now being polished off as an air mechanic. Being a late comer he'll probably have to stay in until all the vets have been discharged and the peace time air force settled down." Just recently Don Brooks wrote, "Gil Swett is back. Helen and I ran into him and Marie at dinner the other night. He looks finely." So apparently Gil knew where he stood on the way out of this man's army.
We called the Haskell residence in Cincinnati expecting to get the latest on Lt. Comdr. Sam from Mrs. Haskell, but, instead, had the
real pleasure o£ a long chat with Sam himself. In fact we caught him at work on the stoker,— not that Cincinnati temperatures on that date warranted much of a fire,—but if one has a stoker he might as well have it in working condition, particularly in the fall. Sam is on inactive duty and has been since June. He returned from the Philippines to his regular peacetime duty as director of adult probation for Hamilton County. Although we were a bit skittish at first, Sam said his address both at home and at the court house were perfectly safe and urged us to try them,—which we plan to do. He was on active service for four and a half years, since Nov. 1, 1940, with comparatively long stretches in this country on recruiting service, at sea in the Carribean and the north Pacific, at a section base in the Carolinas, and at a base in Australia. Daughter Marilyn is at home, working at the Children's Home in Cincinnati. Sam Jr. 17, attends Porter Military Academy, Charleston, So. Car., where he is a letter man on the varsity, playing an end. Ruth is "a darned good sport," according to Sam's direct testimony, running the Haskell home as she did without a complaint and managing the stoker single handed while Sam put in his long period of active duty in the Navy. Sam met Capt. Gerald Shattuck in Washington in May, and previous to that in Australia, when both were taking it full blast every day in the Navy's surge to push back the Jap's island front. Sam would like some day to see Australia again, preferably with Ruth, but he is permanently fed up on the heat, rain, and humidity of the Pacific Islands.
Major Arch Gile wrote, "Am on the way at last. Don't know when I'll arrive as the wheels grind slowly, but I'm in the process. Surely make it before Thanksgiving, I think." Twelve days later Don Brooks reported, "Had a phone call from Archie Gile from Camp Kilmer. He was to leave yesterday for Devens and then home." Up to that point the wheels seem to have fairly spun for Arch, and we hope they whirled him home to his beloved Hanover and into civilian togs equally as rapidly.. ... Frorrt Fairfield, Cal., Major Hal Bidwell says, "Am still in service on the West Coast. Don't as yet know when I'll get out but it shouldn't be long now. Haven't seen any of the old gang. Would like to see a game this year at Yale or Hanover, but guess that's out." Hal sends regards to the gang, and to Harry Hawkes in particular.
Major Tom Clark is "Out of the Army as of September 34. Back again with Caterpillar Tractor Co., who loaned me to the corps of engineers. Present assignment is at Omaha, Nebr.; address, the Blackstone." In an earlier letter Tom mentioned Jack Baer, Ray Wain, Johnnie Wheelock, and Les Stephens, and, expressed regrets that they are all "located in places far away where I have no contact with them." .... Major Charlie Peters says, "I'm still in the Army for a while longer, operating a 4th and sth echelon shop at Fort Devens, Mass." But he gives his old pre-war address, 1066 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, which no doubt indicates near future hope of a civilian status Bob Boynton is "still down in Calypsoland, Trinidad, 8.W.1., with the U. S.0., catering to the G.I. Can't think of anything I would rather do than sit along side at some of the football games. Meanwhile will content myself with drinking to you all in absentia. It begins to look like I would be home by Xmas."
To all the above, and to all good '17ers still in the services whose prospects of returning home to civil life are more remote, and to those of the gang who are still in as members of the regular establishment, to all these members of the old guard who picked up and went, we say sincerely, "Thanks, guys, for a swell job well done. We'll be glad to see you at the first opportunity and, meanwhile, more power to you."
From Philadelphia comes the announcement of Mrs. Edward Abbott Fraser of the marriage of her daughter, Florence Fraser Mudge, to Bruce Alan Ludgate Jr., on September 15th in Marion, Mass. In the same mail Bruce breaks it to us more gently by saying. "About the most important bit of personal news I have to offer is contained in the announcement already sent to you. I have known her for quite a long time; she is a grand gal, and an accomplished concert pianist of some fame along the eastern seaboard, and has an adorable daughter, Verity, who is eight years old. We are now in the process of trying to find a more comfortable place to live and with a bit more room to spread out in. Florence has already been formally accepted into member- ship in the class of '17, and the youngest member of the household happily wore the green and white at the Penn-Dartmouth game last Saturday."
Our hearty congratulations, Bruce. And if she will so honor us, Mrs. Florence Ludgate may consider that she is a member of '17 in excellent standing. And Verity, too. Bruce adds, "Apart from that, there is not a great deal of news. Occasionally I see Vic Smith, Art Jopson, and Heinie Wright. But, unfortutely have not been able to attend as many of the luncheons as I should have liked."
Searles Morton wrote, Things are moving Jong about as usual. Rate is better, but not entirely recovered; and I am busy." A few days fater we moved into Columbus for a day or two were pleased to be able to verify his report personally. We looked him up in his busy office, and arranged to get together for the conventional cocktail hour. There we took the time to go back over old times a bit, and to talk about a lot of you birds. Searles is working hard, no doubt. He took no vacation last summer, but plans a long one next year, with visits to Hanover, Boston, and Cape Cod included. Kate is much improved, and visited daughter Dorothy on Long Island for three weeks between July and August, profiting substantially from the trip. Searles had a fat brief case under his arm, ready for the meeting of the city Council that evening. The best we could do as an isolated and unofficial committee was to resolve firmly for regular and long summer vacations, and against work after the usual office closing hour.
Lt. Harold J. Weeks Jr., son of Hal and Jo, was married June 23 in Wakefield, Mass., to Phyllis F. Campbell, cadet nurse, of Wakefield. Lt. Harold received his discharge from the Army on October 16, and planned to return immediately to Dartmouth for his senior year. The bride and groom will live in Middle Fayerweather, which has been made into apartments for married students. Hal and Jo dropped in on us in Dedham in the early fall, and a very pleasant visit was reported. Unfortunately, your travelling secretary had taken off for parts west so had to chalk the visit up to a very definite personal miss. A lost chance to visit with Hal and Jo is a lost opportunity any time Miss Nancy Louise Carr, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Houghton Carr of Hingham, Mass., will make her debut at a luncheon to be given by her mother, Dec. 21, at the Junior League. Nancy, who was graduated from Milton Academy, is now a freshman at Bryn Mawr. This news comes from a recent issue of the Boston Herald which carried with it a very attractive picture of Nancy. .... Dr. and Mrs. Guy L. Richardson of Haverhill, Mass., announce the engagement of their daughter, Marjorie, to S/Sgt. Stephen T. White USA, also of Haverhill. Marjorie graduated from Edgewood Park Junior College in '43 and from Wheaton in '45. Sgt. White is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, and was an undergraduate at Princeton when he entered the service. He plans to return there in February to complete his engineering course. This news also comes from the Boston Herald, which also "pictured Marjorie in a lovely portrait.
From Heinie Wright comes our only report to date on '17s attendance at current football games: "Saw Capt. Walt Walters, Vic Smith, and Russ Fisher at the Penn game. A tough one to lose."
There seems to be a unanimous opinion that the football game with Yale was strictly a supplementary attraction for Seventeeners and sub-Seventeeners in New Haven the 3rd of November. The main event and the primary lure for the first real post-war event on the 1917 calendar was the "tea-party" at Bob and Anita Scott's newly acquired and substantial residence set in seven acres on the west side of Hunting Hill just four or five miles from the Bowl. It was reported to be the proper and much-deserved setting for this annual event of the class.
Participating in the sumptuous hospitality, and quickly forgetting the desultory and eyelash licking by Yale were: Colonel (newly decorated with the Legion of Merit and a pair of chickens) and Mrs. Fitch; the musical Cottons; a pair of Sanborns; Major and Lee Sherman; de-uniformed and long absent Sam White with the Missus; Bill Sewall without his alter ego, Bill Eaton, but the latter was at the game; be-orchided Ruby Maclntyre and her husband who didn't bestow the floral decoration; Jack and Dodo Saladine; the K. Winslow Holdens; Sally Shea and her shoe magnate; the Donald O'Learys; Treasurer Brooks with his wife and, no kidding, his secretary; and, the father and mother of a newly entered Dartmouth freshman by the name of Tommy Towler. Sub-Seventeeners at the Scott's were; John Sewall, Jane Towler, Howard Stockwell Jr., Dick Stockwell, Joan Stockwell, Martha Stockwell, and of course Anita Scott Jr. At the game only, Bud Robie and Gordon Tracy were checked in.
We wish to take this opportunity to extend to every '17er, wherever he may be, and to his family, our sincere best wishes for a Merry Christmas, and we earnestly hope that the New Year will bring, in addition to a real measure of health and prosperity, the opportunity for the best gang of guys in the world to get together more frequently.
A NEW ALUMNI COUNCIL MEMBER, Karl W. Koeniger '17 is serving on the Council as the representative of the Class Agents for the next three years.
Secretary, 57 Chestnut St., Dedham, Mass.
Treasurer, 9 Park Terrace, Upper Montclair, N. J.
